Thursday, April 30, 2009

Motherhood is humbling

Last night, after her bath, Anna-Kate found a pair of my panties in the laundry basket and tried them on. Of course they were too big. Anyway, she informed me that she intended to wear them to bed. I told her that, no, in fact, they were too big and she had to wear her own panties. Her response?

"Mommy, when my bottom gets big like yours, then will you share with me?" Not only did she tell me my bum was too big, she said I wasn't sharing. Rough night. :)

***

Chris was reading to Anna-Kate about the birth of Jesus ("baby Jesus story", her favorite). The book said something about Jesus being our Saviour.

Chris: "Anna-Kate, do you know what 'Saviour' means?"
AK: "No sir"
CH: "what did Jesus come to save us from?" (hoping for the answer sin, since we've been talking about sin).
AK: "umm, dinosaurs?"

A fool-proof way to relieve frustration.

When my kids read books it somehow requires that all books be taken off of the shelf for said reading to take place. As they both love to read, (even by themselves, which I know is a wonderful thing...)the hallway in between their rooms is often impassible because it is so strewn with books. (the OCD in me starts ticking every time I walk by, but I digress).

The other night, Chris was out and so I was doing bath/bed duties alone. I told Anna-Kate to clean up the books while I put Ryan down and then we would have special girl time and she could stay up late. I walked out from Ryan's room to find the books still on the floor, not the first one picked up. I looked in her room to see her reading her Bible story book ever so sweetly. I told her she had disobeyed Mommy and that I was sad.
AK: "I sorry Mommy."
Me: "Why are you sorry Anna-Kate?"
AK: "I don't know."
Me: "What did you do bad?"
AK: "Huh?"
Me: "Why is Mommy and Jesus sad?"
AK: "I don't know."
Me: "You disobeyed Mommy by not picking up the books like I asked you to. When you disobey it makes Mommy said and Jesus sad. You need to apologize and ask Mommy to forgive you."
Ak: "I sorry Mommy."
Me: "Why are you sorry...." I am not exaggerating when I say that almost verbatim, this conversation happened 3 times in a row. My patience was sorely tested and it was all I could do to remain calm and even toned when speaking with her. But, I persevered and finally heard...

AK: "I sorry Mommy for disobeying. I forgive you"
Me: "No, Mommy needs to forgive you Anna-Kate. Anna-Kate, I am glad you are sorry, but sometimes there are consequences when we disobey."
AK: "Oh, it's OK Mommy, I clean up all the books all by my-self!" (the all by myself party is her new thing and each word has emphasis on it, with her head going back and forth with each word--kinda spunky and sassy). She then finished with,"I do it tomorrow."

Seriously? I had to walk away because I was laughing so hard. All frustration went away.

So, there you have it, a simple way to forget frustration, reach the breaking point and then have a 2 1/2 year old say something so funny, you just can't ignore it.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

A trip to the zoo!

For Ryan's birthday, my parents gave our family a zoo membership as ours had expired. We love to go the zoo! So, mom drove up last night and spent the night and she, the kids and I headed out this morning. There were twenty grades of field trips today. It was a mad house. Brilliantly, my Mom suggested going through backwards. Such a good call! Anna-Kate was quite thrown off by not visiting the animals in their "correct" order and kept asking to see the elephants (usually what we see first).

The kids in front of the huge guerilla exhibit.

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Closer up:

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Ryan was so sad when I made him get out of the bird's nest. It is in a section of the zoo with birds flying about and monkey's climbing everything--his favorite part of the zoo for sure.

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The boy LOVES birds. I dont' so much, but I indulge him. What a great Mom I am-ha! (Actually, if we are talking about how great of a mom I am, I might as well tell you that today marked my second time in the reptile house. I abhor snakes, they give me the willies, but I am determined not to pass my phobias on to my kids. I want them to learn snakes are yucky and we don't touch, but not scary and worth fearing. See, I told you I was a great mom today!). :)

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My mom feeding the birds with Ryan. Thanks Mom for making time for the trip up! The kids (and I!) enjoyed the time so much, and of course, thank you both for the membership, you know we'll use it!!

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Anna-Kate loved showing the ducks to Ryan. "They say 'quack' Ryan, see them, see them?!..." She's a sweet sister for sure.

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***

This picture is completely unrelated, but I actually got a picture of both of them looking at me, mostly smiling and relatively close up. (No small task, in case you were not aware of my mommy super-powers).

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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A major praise!!

I took Ryan in for(his millionth...) a weight check yesterday. YAY--he is 21 lbs exactly and I don't have to give him pediasure anymore, he is not "failing to thrive" anymore, and is in the 9% for weight!! This is such a praise and has been a subject of worry for me for months. They weighed him naked, but I forgot to get my camera out, so on our way out of the office I stuck him on the scale again. It says 21.12 lbs, but that's because the dr. has her hand on him to keep him from throwing himself off the scale--he was none too pleased to be put back up there!

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Here is a pic of Anna-Kate and her good friend, Campbell, playing dress-up yesterday. They are self-proclaimed "beautiful princesses". In fact, Anna-Kate sang, "I a princess. Wait, I a beautiful princess..."

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***

Anna-Kate got up from her nap yesterday and said, "Mommy, would you like to give me some money now?". I told her that, in fact, I did not, and even if I wanted to, I had no pennies for her. She said, "well, then will you buy me some money to put in my piggy bank please?."

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Funny girl

Chris had the kids in a stroller on a walk.

AK: "daddy, can we go home and watch a show please?"
CH: "uh, maybe."
AK: "no daddy. I need yes or no, no maybe."

***

We were going to eat dinner at our friends' house last night and Anna-Kate asked where we were going.

Me: "to Miss Heather's house" (who lives down the street)
AK: "Oh, down the street and across the river."
Me: "Across the river? No, just down the street."
AK: "well, sometimes across the river. Right Mommy, sometimes?"

***

AK: "I love you so much Mommy"
Me: "Oh, I love you too Anna-Kate."
AK: "you my honey. It's ok honey."

***

We are putting a huge emphasis on manners, specifically saying "yes ma'am", "no ma'am" (etc) without having to be reminded. We have come up with a system of her putting stickers on a chart and when all the spots are filled with stickers she gets a toy. We went to Target and let her pick a toy (an Ariel doll) that she wants for her reward (we'll go back and get it after she fills up the spots). This morning I reminded her about what we were learning and asked if she was going to remember her manners first time without me reminding her so she could get her mermaid doll.

AK: "Oh yes ma'am Mommy. I get a sticker now. Yes ma'am. That two."

Thursday, April 23, 2009

A day at the park.

Or, every day at the park. :)

The weather is finally nice and we've been making the most of it. We've either been to a park around the city or played on "our park" as Anna-Kate calls it, every day this week and it's been fantastic! The kids sleep so well on days they get to run and play outside, and the sun has been doing wonders for everyone's mood.

In other news, after spending most of Sunday crying (Ryan that is, not me), I finally checked in Ryan's mouth to discover his molar breaking through...so I guess we're going through that now. Poor guy.

Anna-Kate is really enjoying "mommy school" as she calls it. I bought her a preschool workbook a while back and we've been doing a few pages in the afternoon, after Ryan goes down, before she takes a nap. It's our special girl time and she loves it. In fact she begs for mommy school frequently. This bodes well for me. :)

Not much else new. I've been doing really well with couponing and saving. It took a few months to really get the hang of it and to acquire a good stockpile of coupons and groceries at home, but I'm now regularly saving as much as I spend, as well as cutting our weekly budget by about 30%-50% depending on the week. God has certainly taught me a lot about being a good steward. I think back to this time last year and how much I used to spend on various items and I'm shocked and amazed at all of the tricks I've learned, the ways God has provided and the ways I've been able to cut costs.

Wow...that was kinda boring. Sorry, no new pictures or quotables...maybe next time. :)

Monday, April 20, 2009

A week in pictures

So I'm just now getting around to posting pictures of all of the project we got done while the kids were gone. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of my scrapbooking. It was my kitchen table with a card table pushed up to it and a huge circle of paper, photo corners, stickers etc circling that (creative memories type stuff EVERYWHERE--it was enough to make me get the shakes just looking at the mess...)

Here is my downstairs bathroom. We painted a base coat, plus five (yes, I said 5) coats of top coat. We pulled down the mirror stuck on the wall and I found the one framed in black for a total steal, ($27!) I made the shower curtain (from a table cloth I found at Marshalls for $11) and monogrammed the towels (towels on sale for $3 each!!). I am really happy with the way it turned out. We were going for "grown up" and "dramatic". :)

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Here is Anna-Kate's room. Since she saw it (literally, every day!) she runs in and starts jumping up and down squealing "pink, pink, pink!" (for as long as you will watch and listen.) Understatement of the year, she loves it. The curtains and french board I made way back to match her nursery bedding, but I have since made the bed skirt, pillows and duvet cover for her bed. I also made the lampshade and painted a picture frame to match (though, not sure if you can see?).

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Finally, the kids bathroom. It is really green. It's finally grown on me. I mean, it's a kids bathroom and they love it. Having the towels monogrammed and up now really helps take away from the "catepillar green" that it is. :) Made the shower curtain, sewed rickrack on towels and monogrammed them etc. Chris put up the bead board/wainscoating (evidently the name is different depending on where you are from??) and I am so impressed with what an awesome job he did, and replaced the "hollywood lights" that came with the house.

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Sunday, April 19, 2009

Wedding

AHH! Never enough time to blog! I have a couple of blogs, but they will just have to wait. :)

This weekend we went to Americus Georgia for my cousin Laura's wedding. Of course, she was a beautiful bride. ("you're pretty" Anna-Kate told her. She also told me, "that's a princess Mommy. I put my dress on too because I like being a princess too!"). We had a great time seeing family we see far too seldom, eating great food and enjoying a weekend away!

Congratulations Laura and Bo!!

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Only other pictures I got on my camera (sadly). My family with my (mom's parents) grandparents.

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and Ryan biting off a strawberry. The boy loves strawberries!

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Other quotables from the day:

At my aunt and uncles house after the wedding (where they hosted a bar-b-que dinner) Chris and Anna-Kate were walking down by the pond looking at ducks. They flew away when Anna-Kate ran to them. She said, "daddy, they go away. They must not like us much."

She was sitting with Ryan on a brick ledge when I walked up and she said, "Look at me mommy!! I sitting on a wall! Humpty-dumpty say on a wall, humpty dumpty had a great fall--ka-boom!"

We left at 8 last night to drive home, hoping the kids would sleep the whole way. Chris and I were talking quietly in the front as we thought they were both asleep. Suddenly (at 9:07 in fact) she said, "guys, what you talking about? I can't hear you."

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Helpful hint, I'm full of them! :)

Sadly, I've had to use this bit of information far more than a person ever should...

If you ever forget your laundry in the washing machine and it starts to stink (or put it in the drier even and forget to push go...I'm just saying, it could happen...) all you have to do is put the washer on "rinse" add 1/4 cup of vinegar and voila! Clothes come out smelling fresh as ever and ready to be dried. I thought for sure they would smell like vinegar, but they don't. Believe me, I've tested the theory a few times.

Sadly,just now in fact.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Easter 2009

We had a wonderful Easter! Chris and I drove down to my parents house on Saturday to see the kids and spend the night. My grandparents and my grandpa's brother and his wife came down for Easter on Sunday. We had a wonderful church service, fantastic meal, kids egg hunt and just a time of relaxing with family--wonderful! Now, for your viewing pleasure. :)

Anna-Kate dying eggs (to be filled with confetti--cascarones!)

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Chris and Ryan reading from his new Elmo book ("Mo") that he got in his Easter basket

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Anna-Kate was ECSTATIC to receive Minnie Mouse panties, but the lip smackers ("PINK LIPSTICK!!" she said) stole the show:

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Family picture in Mom and Dad's garden (these are the outfits I made for the kids last week):

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Ryan is off on his first egg hunt! He loved it. He then discovered more fun when there were goldfish in his eggs. The way to this boys heart is surely through his stomach. :)

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Sweet girl had to take on a second basket to hold all of the eggs. As Ryan lost interest after only 2 eggs, she found all of the rest.

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Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Home alone

It's weird. My house is so quiet. My kids are at my parent's house in Macon for spring break. It's such a good thing--I have a to do list that is a mile long and the quality time with my parents is great for them! (it's also helping Ryan realize there are other people in the world besides me). However, I boo-hoo'd as I drove home yesterday, leaving my babies behind. You'd think I was leaving for weeks on end. I've called 3 times today and teared up each time. They are both doing great with Anna-Kate telling me that Ryan cried but she's helping him be brave (a record phone conversation with me, and, no tears at the end! Well, for her anyway).

Despite all of this, I've had a most productive day. I made Ryan's Easter outfit (to match Anna-Kate's which I made a few weeks ago), shopped for fabric and decor for the downstairs bathroom and made the shower curtain, monogrammed a dress for a friend, monogrammed the towels for my bathroom, went to Home Depot and got paint for the projects--Whew! Big day!

Sweet Chris took me to dinner at Figo tonight. Yummy pasta and just nice to not cook!

On the docket for tomorrow is some painting and to get caught up on my scrapbook! I'll see how that goes. :)

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Turning a new leaf

Ryan DID NOT throw up yesterday. I repeat, for the first time in 6 weeks, he did not throw up on Saturday. Let's all take a moment and let that sink in.

Ahhhh. Sweet relief. His 6th tooth also popped through this weekend. All in all, I'd say it's a big weekend for him. :)

***

We've had a wonderful weekend! Saturday was gorgeous and Chris worked in the yard (and it looks awesome!) while Anna-Kate and I went out to do some shopping, "just the girls" (picking up some new thread colors etc for all of the monogramming business I've had this past week!). That afternoon Chris' parents arrived and we hung out with them until time for us to go out on a SUPER FUN DATE!! We went out to dinner and had amazing steaks and garlic mashed potatoes and wonderful salads and bread (seriously, might be the best steak I've ever had...) followed up by some chocolate cake. When I say a piece of chocolate cake, I'm not just 'whistling Dixie', This thing was about 8 inches tall and about 5 inches wide. (We brought home about half of it and finished that off this afternoon. Ahh, Sunday afternoon! :))Anyway, after dinner we went to see Brian Regan in concert? He's a comedian...don't know what you call seeing that?? He was absolutely hysterical. I added one link to a 1 minute bit of his, but Youtube him if you are unfamiliar or just want more! He is pretty clean, with most of his humor revolving around kids, family, everyday stuff--my throat and sides killed from laughing so hard. It was SUCH a fun night! (Chris gave me tickets for my birthday, so we've been looking forward to this for a while!).
Today my niece, Isabel (Chris' brother Pete's daughter) was baptized (thus, the real reason for my in-laws visit..not just to babysit for us!). It was a sweet service, and she did awesome, followed by a great time at Pete and Joy's for lunch and hanging out. We didn't get home until 5 this afternoon and just had a relaxing evening at home. We're about to partake in some pizza...all in all, a great weekend!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

The story of Moses

...as told by Anna-Kate.

When we got to the part about the Pharoah's daughter finding the baby in the basket she said, "Oh, she a princess like me Mommy!". I agreed and she said, "I a beautiful mermaid. She can be Jasmine. But, Jasmine no wear clothes like that, (she had a long dress and a head piece with a snake thing on the forhead) so maybe not Jasmine, but I a mermaid."

On the next page there was a picture of Pharoah's daughter and her two helpers holding baby Moses. She asked who the two other girls were. I told her they were the princesses helpers. Her response? "well, I a princess. Where are my helpers?"

Seriously? I can't make stuff up this funny! :)

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

I have no title

The Easter party was cancelled this morning, bummer, especially considering the sun came out this afternoon. O well, we'll do it in a couple of weeks.

I ended up taking both kids to the pediatrician this afternoon. Ryan has developed a nasty sounding cough and with family in town this weekend and the kids going to my parents next week, I just wanted to make sure all were healthy and well--and try to get an answer about Ryan's throw up thing! Bottom line, it might be allergies, she said to give Benadryl if that helps, but that it wasn't bad enough to put either of them on a Zyrtec type medicine. Ryan's throat was inflamed, and since she had it prior, to make sure all was knocked out, they are both on an RX--hopefully all will be good tomorrow. As far as the throw up thing goes...she said that sometimes they will notice a trend of throwing up in kids who did not throw up as infants (as is the case with Ryan). She said that as they get really active and mobile a weak stomach makes itself seen more than when they were sitting around. She said obviously we don't know that for sure, but it's another theory. She also said that if he's had a runny nose (which he has on and off all winter...) that extra mucous can make some kids throw up more easily since they can't blow it out and it just kinda pools in their tummy's (YUCK!). So, we still know nothing, but we'll keep praying. On a sweet note...we've been playing doctor at home and she loves it. So today she was so brave and even lifted her shirt for the dr to hear her heart beat and turned her head so she could see in her ears. She hates having her nose looked at (I chalk that up to the shock of her life when she got the flu-mist in her nose last fall). She started to waver and the dr asked her if she wanted to hold the light to her nose--that worked out well! Then it was Ryan's turn. She said, "it's OK Ryan, it not scary. Be brave like me!"

***

Spent the day cooking lasagna sauce and making a big pan of it for dinner for us and to take to a friend who just had a baby. My house smells like a garlic/Italian oasis. Yum.

***

Only other highlight of the day is that I have my packing list and to do list completed for next week. It's the little things people.

***

This is for you Emily, today, Anna-Kate had her first gum. She was in heaven. I was doing my weekly Walgreens run (3 mentos gums, 2 bags of Halls cough drops and 4 huge bottles of body wash for $8.59) and she noticed the gum in the buggy. She asked for some candy and I explained that it was gum but she could try some. We split a piece and the first 30 seconds she spent fanning her mouth saying, "it so spicey mama, it so spicey!". She did a great job with it and I so enjoyed our little girl time out together ("we go, just us girls mama, right?" she said.) She is such a sweet girl and I try to cherish each moment.

***

And finally, a funny moment from today. The kids and I were playing in the playroom and I said for them to keep playing that mommy had to go potty (I've learned if I just leave without narrating my every move they freak out...). Well, they both followed me to my room. Of course, there is no such thing as privacy. Well, Anna-Kate went so far as to follow me into the toilet part of the bathroom. She said, "Mommy, you need pri-cey (privacy)?" I answered that I did indeed. She then closed the door behind her. Not 2 seconds later the door reopened and she pokes her head in, "still need pri-cey Mom?". "Yes Anna-Kate, still need privacy, why don't you play with Ryan for a minute." She then fully opened the door and walked in and reached to pull down my jeans. (what a helper...). I told her I got it. She said, "Oh. Ok, I just helping you Mama" and looked up with the sweetest smile and gave my legs a hug.